At one time or another, every working father faces the same challenge: After giving his best for eight to 10 hours a day at the office, it is difficult to give more. As he arrives home, he tries to separate himself from work consciousness and turn his attention to his family. Often, this is not easy to do.

Not to worry. Help has arrived for all those dads who are struggling to be the ideal father but find themselves succumbing to the stress of careers, hectic schedules, travel and too little free time. "Take heart," says parenting expert Jack Petrash, author of Covering Home: Lessons on the Art of Fathering from the Game of Baseball (Robins Lane Press, 2001). "You probably meet the most important requirement for being a good father: willingness to change."

According to Petrash, the skills needed to become a good father are not so different from the ones needed to become a great ball player. "In fathering as in baseball you must work on fundamentals, develop good habits, avoid errors, work on control and always keep in mind that you can't win them all," he writes in his book. "We start out as rookies with ample portions of problems and promises. Early on, we discover holes in our swing or a propensity for giving up long home runs, but we also have moments of brilliance. Minimizing weakness and maximizing brilliance is the work of player development."

Using lessons from baseball, Petrash identifies the key points of successful parenting. Follow these baseball-guided tips and tricks to become a better father:

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